Assembly type do-it-yourself (DIY) floor tile

ABSTRACT

An assembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile having a plastic base made of plastic material by injection molding process, a plurality of positioning pieces being formed on a top surface of the plastic base, the bottom surface of the plastic base being hollow and having a plurality of supporting feet and lateral grooves, the plastic base having engaging grooves on two adjacent sides thereof with opening directed upwards, the plastic base further having an engaging tongue on each of the other two adjacent sides thereof for fitting into the engaging grooves; and tile body having a plurality of positioning grooves corresponding to the positioning pieces of the plastic base, the tile body being attached firmly with adhesive to the top surface of the plastic base.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to an assembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floortile, and more particularly, to a DIY floor tile that doesn't needcement and sand as its fixing base.

2. Description of the Related Art

Floor tiles provide a smooth and bright surface, and are easily cleaned.Therefore, they play an important part in the building materials andwidely received by house owners.

A conventional process to lay floor tiles is shown in FIG. 1. Firstly, alayer of concrete 11 is applied to the ground surface. Then, the floortiles 12 are laid one after another to the concrete 11. At last, gapsbetween floor tiles 12 are filled with cement 13. However, this processhas following drawbacks:

-   1. A perfect application of concrete to the ground must rely on the    craft and skill of the floor tile layer, and their wage is very    expensive, even higher than the tiles. For example, polishing quartz    tiles in size of 45 cm×45 cm for a room of 4 square meter cost    US$30˜50 while the wage for each square meter amounts to US$40˜50.    When the cost of cement and sand is included, the high overall    construction costs result in additional financial burden to the    user. Furthermore, floor tile layers are often hard to hire if the    construction project is small or for only partial interior    decoration.-   2. It's troublesome when the construction site is located in    residential area because the cement and sand are easily scattered    and left everywhere on the corridor, floor, and staircase.-   3. Before laying the floor tile, the original floor has to be    removed. Moreover, the cement structure takes up a great deal of    time before next step is taken, thereby resulting in increase of    construction duration. In addition, the noise made during the    construction will seriously affect the life of neighborhood.

In light of construction cost, duration, and environment, theconventional floor tiles presents a lot of problems that need to beeliminated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary object of the invention to provide an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile that doesn't require cement and sand,and doesn't reply on the floor tile layer. It's easy and cost-saving fornormal consumers to lay the floor tile by themselves.

It is another object of the invention to provide an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile that can be directly laid on theoriginal building materials so that it can be avoided that they areremoved to make noise for neighborhood.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile that consists of a plastic base and atile body wherein the plastic base includes engaging grooves on twoadjacent sides thereof and an engaging tongue on each of the other twoadjacent sides thereof for fitting into the engaging grooves. Theflexibility of the plastic material permits a tight engagement of theengaging tongues into the engaging grooves, thereby resulting in a rapidand convenient assembly. So, it is suitable for DIY installation.

It is still another object of the invention to provide an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile in which the tile body is fitted andglued to the plastic base wherein the bottom surface is hollow andincludes a plurality of supporting feet to contact with the surface,thereby forming a point contact type and allowing an automaticadjustment to the uneven surface. Moreover, the plastic base provideslateral grooves for hiding different cables in the floor tile.

It is still a further object of the invention to provide an assemblytype Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile through which the installation ofthe floor tile doesn't require concrete as its fixing base on theground. In case of local damage of tiles, the invention allows a rapidreplacement.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile through which the load on the floor canbe relieved to enhance the safety of the whole building.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accomplishment of this and other objects of the invention willbecome apparent from the following descriptions and its accompanyingdrawings of which:

FIG. 1 is schematic drawings of process in laying conventional tiles;

FIG. 2 is a first exploded view of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a second exploded view of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the invention after assembly;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the bottom side of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing showing a first assembly way of theinvention;

FIG. 7 is a cutaway view of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic drawing showing a second assembly way of theinvention;

FIG. 9 is a cutaway view of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 is a cutaway view of another embodiment of the invention showingthat stuffing is filled into gaps.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

First of all, referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, an assembly typeDo-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile in accordance with the inventionincludes a plastic base 20 and a tile body 30.

The plastic base 20 is made of plastic material like polypropylene (PP),polyethylene (PE), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), etc. byinjection molding process. A plurality of positioning pieces 211 areformed on a top surface 21 of the plastic base 20. The plastic base 20includes a plurality of engaging grooves 22 on two adjacent sidesthereof and an engaging tongue 23 on each of the other two adjacentsides thereof. The engaging tongues 23 fit into the correspondingengaging grooves 22. As shown in FIG. 5, the bottom surface of theplastic base 20 is hollow and includes a plurality of supporting feet 24and lateral grooves 25 for receiving cables.

The tile body 30 includes a plurality of positioning grooves 311corresponding to the positioning pieces 211 of the plastic base 20. Thetile body 30 is attached firmly with adhesive 32 to the top surface 21of the plastic base 20 to form an assembly type floor tile 40 (see FIG.4). The adhesive 32 can be glue or resin. The tile body 30 can beattached to the plastic base 20 by automatic machine tools beforeleaving factory. By fitting several positioning pieces 211 into thepositioning grooves 311 to form the assembly type floor tile 40, it canensure a firm connection without slip action.

As shown in FIG. 6, each unit of the assembly type floor tile 40 inaccordance with the invention includes the engaging grooves 22 at theleft and the front side thereof while the engaging tongues 23 are formedat the right and the rear side of the assembly type floor tile 40. Onlyby fitting the assembly type floor tiles 40 into each other, as shown inFIG. 7, the engaging tongue 23 can be inserted into the engaging grooves22. Meanwhile, the engaging grooves 22 and the engaging tongue 23 areformed together with the plastic base 20 in a body. Due to theflexibility of the plastic material, the insertion of the engagingtongue 23 into the engaging grooves 22 produces a tight engagement,thereby resulting in a reliable assembly. Moreover, each of the engaginggrooves 22 has an opening directed upwardly while each of the engaginggrooves 22 has an inserting body directly downwardly. In this way, it'svery easy for users to understand how to assemble the floor tile of theinvention, thereby permitting a successful DIY action without any tools.

Again, referring to FIG. 6, the bottom side of the plastic base 20 ofthe assembly type floor tile 40 in accordance with the invention isformed with lateral grooves 25 in which all kinds of cables 50 liketelephone cables, telecommunication cables, network cables, etc., may bereceived. Meanwhile, the plastic base 20, as shown in FIG. 7, includesseveral supporting feet 24 to contact with the ground surface unlike theconventional one with the whole bottom surface to contact it. Therefore,the supporting feet 24 will adapt to different ground surfaces when theplastic base 20 is attached to an uneven surface. This avoidsdeformation of the assembly type floor tile 40 after assembly.

In addition, the assembly type floor tiles 40 can be arranged either inalignment way (see FIG. 6) or in staggered way (see FIG. 8). The areaand the shape of the assembly type floor tile 40 can be selected inaccordance with different requirements.

Furthermore, referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, the tile body 30 of theassembly type floor tile 40 in accordance with the invention can bedesigned to be smaller than the plastic base 20 so as to form a gap (t)against a wall (w) or at the joint of two assembly type floor tiles 40.The gap (t) can be filled with stuffing 33 which is selected from agroup consisting of water-repellent resin, silicone, mastic, etc. So,there is no gaps on the surface of the tiles after their installation.This prevents water from seeping into the gap in cleaning the assemblytype floor tiles 40. Meanwhile, the stuffing 33 can reinforce theconnection of the assembly type floor tiles 40 and make the wholesurface smooth and appealing.

Based upon the above-mentioned configuration, the engaging tongues 23 atthe right and the rear side of one assembly type floor tile 40 arefitted from top to bottom into the engaging grooves 22 at the left andthe front side of another assembly type floor tile 40 to permit two-sideattachment with only one action, thereby facilitating the laying ofassembly type floor tiles 40. Beside, only the tile body 30 is visibleand the plastic base 20 is completely invisible after the assembly typefloor tiles 40 are laid so that the invention has the same appearanceand provides the same supporting force as the conventional tilessupported by concrete. Moreover, the plastic base 20 can be melted forrecycling purpose.

The invention is suitable for DIY laying in a small room. Moreover, it'seasy to replace the tiles when they are locally damaged unlike theconventional tiles whose removal takes up a great deal of effort andtime when damaged.

Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of theinvention can, of course, be carried out without departing from thescope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and theuseful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limitedonly by the scope of the appended claims.

1. An assembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile comprising: a) aplastic base made of plastic material by injection molding process, aplurality of positioning pieces being formed on a top surface of theplastic base, the bottom surface of the plastic base being hollow andhaving a plurality of supporting feet and lateral grooves, the plasticbase having engaging grooves on two adjacent sides thereof with openingdirected upwards, the plastic base further having an engaging tongue oneach of the other two adjacent sides thereof for fitting into theengaging grooves; and b) a tile body having a plurality of positioninggrooves corresponding to the positioning pieces of the plastic base, thetile body being firmly attached with adhesive to the top surface of theplastic base.
 2. The assembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile asrecited in claim 1 wherein the bottom surface of the plastic baseincludes a plurality of lateral grooves for receiving cables.
 3. Theassembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile as recited in claim 1wherein the engaging grooves are formed at the left and the front sideof the plastic base while the engaging tongues are formed at the rightand the rear side of thereof.
 4. The assembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY)floor tile as recited in claim 1 wherein the tile body is selected froma group consisting natural stony material and baked clay.
 5. Theassembly type Do-It-Yourself (DIY) floor tile as recited in claim 1wherein the area of the tile body is smaller than that of the plasticbase so as to form between every two tile bodies a gap in which stuffingis filled.